Date Approved
9-30-2014
Embargo Period
10-5-2016
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A. Criminal Justice
Department
Law and Justice Studies
College
College of Humanities & Social Sciences
Advisor
Foglia, Wanda
Subject(s)
Tobacco use--Children and youth; Human behavior
Disciplines
Criminology and Criminal Justice
Abstract
In 2005, New Jersey enacted the Smoke Free Air Act to deter the onset of smoking of high school students by raising the legal age of tobacco purchase from 18 to 19 (Cave, Holl, & Schweber, 2005). This was intended to reduce smoking in this population by restricting virtually all high school students' access to cigarettes; however, this legislation also reduced smoking in ways proposed by the concepts of Ronald Akers' Social Learning Theory (1979). The present study postulated limiting access to cigarettes would reduce all measures of cigarettes use, resulting in fewer smoking associates to model smoking behavior, fewer favorable definitions of cigarettes, and less reinforcement of the behavior. Using the data from the New Jersey Youth Tobacco Survey for the years 2004 and 2008, this study found that a statistically significant difference exists before and after this legislation in terms of Prevalence, Frequency, and Intensity of adolescent cigarette use. These differences also showed support for Social Learning Theory in this context and the theory's ability to predict cigarette use in this population.
Recommended Citation
Fera, Beth, "Altering the social learning climate: raising the legal age of tobacco purchase and social learning theory" (2014). Theses and Dissertations. 489.
https://rdw.rowan.edu/etd/489
